Here is the full trascript of India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate’s press conference ahead of the Super 8 clash vs West Indies on February 28.
(Reporter:)
A moment for Rinku Singh, whatever he is going through.
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, first of all, everyone within the team, our condolences go out to Rinku and his family. It’s obviously a very sad time when something like this happens and he hasn’t joined the team yet and he’ll continue to get the love and support from everyone in the group. He’s planned to join us later this evening and like I said we just need to get around him and help him through this very difficult time.
(Reporter:)
A virtual quarter final there against West Indies, just one day of preparation. What is your message going – because you regrouped well against Zimbabwe in Chennai and now this game against West Indies, the pitch looks a bit dry and runs on offer. So how do you assess the whole situation and where do you find yourself in the tournament? Because one defeat could well draw curtains on the campaign.
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, I mean, South Africa, the only undefeated team in the competition now. And the tournament or a tournament of this magnitude kind of builds in stature and builds to this point for everyone now where it’s a quarterfinal and you have to win to stay. And I think the important thing is to focus on ourselves, focus on what has got this group to this point, how well they’ve done. And now there’s only quality players left in the tournament, so it’s about big players standing up, experienced players standing up, and just remaining calm and staying true to the way we’ve played leading up to this match.
(Reporter:)
I mean, going into the tournament, Sanju obviously worked in the scheme of things. And he did not start in the Mumbai game for the start of the tournament. Then again, he came into the 11 in Delhi. Now again in Chennai, you have to shuffle the batting order as well. So in the middle of the tournament, if you have to shuffle the batting lineup, how challenging is it?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
I think it’s a testament to the players that they adapted so well the other night. We’ve always spoken about versatility and being able to play different roles and in different circumstances. I thought the other night in Chennai I was a good example of that. I thought Tilak looked really good at five or six where he came in, in that role for someone who’s batted three for the majority of the last 18 months. I thought he did fantastically well. And now we’ve got options going into this last phase of the tournament against West Indies. Again, we’ll have a proper look at the pitch and decide what combination we’re going to put out there. But certainly, Sanju coming back after sitting on the side for so long, he looked in good touch. He made some good choices, and he got us out the blocks quickly. And it wasn’t a scorecard that was dominated by anyone, but everyone chipped in. And that’s sort of our modus operandi. We just want guys to focus on partnerships and keep the rate going quickly throughout the innings and everyone did really well at that the other night
(Reporter:)
Tomorrow is a do-or-die match how much prepared your team?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, the team is very prepared these are professionals who live for these moments it was a quick turnaround from the disappointment of South Africa I thought the guys regroup really well in the prep in Chennai for those couple of days and we’ve had a nice day off yesterday a travel day and you’ll see nearly everyone’s here today for the optional session. We’ve just been through our plans in the team meeting and just a little bit of fine-tuning now just to get used to the surface, have a look around and make sure we focus on ourselves and put our best foot forward tomorrow in a crucial game.
(Reporter:)
The kind of explosive lineup that they have. But also, they showed a different side to their batting class here (inaudible)
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, I don’t think there’s many lineups that can boast Romario Shephard walking in at number nine. But I think that’s also a feature of all the teams in the tournament now, certainly the teams that have done well, England bat really deep, New Zealand bat really deep, India bat really deep. We have the luxury of someone like Axar, if he doesn’t come in early, coming in at eight. So you have to focus on taking wickets. I think that old-school way of just containing in T20 cricket has gone out. We feel West Indies player a risk reward game of high proportion in both aspects of that. And as a bowling unit, we we’re looking forward to that challenge We know there’s kinks there where we can get wickets. Our plan tomorrow will be to attack the whole 20 overs and peg them back in that way, much like South Africa did. It is certainly going to be a challenge. The surface looks pretty good, so it could be a high-scoring game. As well as throwing punches with the ball, we’re going to have to make sure that we’re brave with the bat as well and maintain a high strike rate and high intent throughout the innings as well.
(Reporter:)
India do not always have to play such high-pressure games because they’re always so good, But given that the West Indies game is now coming up, and as we have discussed, that it’s a virtual quarter final, beyond the points of execution and skills, what sort of mental work needs to be done in the background leading up to a game like this so that the players do not get overawed or do not fall in a misstep? Even in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, at least there were senior guys like Rohit and Virat. But here you can see the obvious, the change in guard and the much younger players. So the pressure must be extreme, isn’t it? Even if you sort of mask it by other conversations, it’s quite real, isn’t it?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, I don’t think you ever want to mask pressure. I think you want to go towards pressure. And that’s been the message throughout, not just the World Cup, but certainly all the bilateral series. All our preparation towards this has been going towards the pressure when it comes and I think more than masking it you want to reframe it we’re continually telling the guys what a privilege it is to play for your country What a privilege it is to walk out of Eden Gardens and play for a match to stay in the tournament. In terms of mechanisms, guys each have their own routines have their own mental models but generally speaking if you can just focus on the next task when you’re under pressure what’s gone before is gone and whether it’s the next ball or the next ball you’re facing you just have to focus on the next ball and I think giving the players the trust that we back them to execute back them all the scaffolding they’ve done with their own work. It is for moments like this and it’s just a great moment to go out there and just show how good we are as a team.
(Reporter:)
Eden Gardens has been a venue where fast bowlers taking the pace off has worked really well and that’s sort of a delivery that’s troubled the Indian batters in this tournament. You’ve lost about 16 wickets to that kind of bowling, although it worked very well in Chennai. And West Indies have done well with that variation as well. So how do you sort of have discussions around that? Do you get that out in the nets? How has that been in this tournament?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, it’s a fine line. Any challenge you face, you don’t want to over-focus it and make it too much a bigger deal. It’ll be maybe half or 40% of the balls where pace is taken off. So it certainly is a challenge and something we have spoken about and something the guys will go out and practice now. But you also need to rely on intuition and your gut feel. Like I said, if you focus too much on one thing, your mind gets clogged up. So we want the players just to play what they see in front of them, but obviously to be aware and pre-program how they want to go about certain threats like the different slower balls that the West India’s bowlers bowl and obviously the different deliveries that Motie and Akeal can bowl themselves but again bring the focus back to their skills, what our guys do really well and just make sure you navigate your way through the challenges that come.
(Reporter:)
Tilak found his mojo in the last game, a new batting position that was unfamiliar. So what kind of work did go into finding, on Tilak finding the form and also is it sacrosanct now that he’s going to bat for the remainder of the matches as and when India play?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
No, it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll bat at five or six tomorrow. Now we do have options. We’ve seen at work having Sanju at the top of the order. They might play Chase, they might play Akeal, we kind of bank on them playing Chase. So that is one strategy we have and we’ve got different entry points for the guys ideally where they come in. And like I said, I thought Tilak the other night, he looked like a number six, he looked like someone who’s really comfortable at a 10 over entry point and I think that’s a massive kudos to him, The way he’s adapted his game. I don’t think he’s been short on form and I mentioned before Spending four weeks on the sideline coming into the tournament and sort of slowly building up is kind of what you expect and I thought that was Tilak back to his old Tilak and played the situation beautifully So it’s comforting to know that we have a little bit more power down the middle. And like I always say, the link between getting out of the blocks quickly and setting up for the back end is the key to India’s success. And it’s nice to know that Tilak can perform both roles.
(Reporter:)
Playing against West Indies in Test or one day is a different thing and playing against them in T20 cricket is a different ball game. It comes so naturally to them, do you think that is going to be the biggest challenge?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
I don’t think that bothers at all what comes naturally to them. I think the challenge is that they are a very good T20 side. They possess power as good as any of the best teams in the world. And I guess what you know about the West Indies when they come to a t20 competition they give absolutely everything. This is their moment their big moment in their calendar like I said, it’s a challenge. We relishing we’re going to fight fire with fire tomorrow, and I’m expecting a really good game out there.
(Reporter:)
The batting pieces fell together very nicely. In fact, they had a perfect game in Chennai last match and prior to the tournament, they didn’t really fire as a unit. But in Chennai, they really fired as a unit. So heading into a crunch game like West Indies and beyond that also, obviously, it’s all knockout games. So how happy is the management and the batters getting the juices flowing.
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
Yeah, it’s been a long time coming. The bilateral series, you sort of rolled the batters out there and they got the job done every time and I’ve alluded to it before but the change in surfaces maybe took us a little while to adapt to how we’re going to play on different surfaces. But certainly in terms of where we are as a batting unit, this is the time you really want to fire. So what happens in the early phase of the competition, in competition mode, you just want to make sure that when you do get to the back end to the crunch matches that everyone’s feeling good, everyone’s really confident in their plans and how they are going to execute those plans. And I feel like we are moving in the right way in terms of that. So good signs for the batters in the last game but blank slates again tomorrow and it’s another chance to put our best foot out there and our best performance out there.
(Reporter:)
Any input from Surya Kumar Yadav that since he is in the same team of Mumbai Indians with Rutherford to contain Rutherford and this is the ground of Varun Chakravorty. So how would you utilize Varun in different phases? Starting one over then again bringing him from other side. Any plan to utilize Varun here because this is his ground?
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
I think most of the guys in all the teams play with each other a lot and play against each other a lot so in terms of intel we do lean on guys from the same team If it’s Mumbai Indians or whatever the IPL teams are guys are sharing ideas about strengths and weaknesses and what the players like and I guess every time you go around India, it’s going to be someone’s home ground and Varun’s obviously had a lot of success here. I think it’s pretty standard how we’ve utilized Varun so far, generally speaking he was one in the power play. He’s our attacking option as well But we’re so aware that teams are now starting to play him a little bit differently. So we have some other strategies to deploy him in in different facets of the game but generally speaking is someone we turn to for wickets And he’s been really good at that. And expect more of the same tomorrow.
(Reporter:)
Coach, India has very good batting lineup, considering that there is no good partnership, what you saw in the earlier in New Zealand series. What is the lacking? What is the reason? Not so good partnership in middle over.
(Ryan Ten Doeschate:)
There have been some good partnerships, I don’t think that’s entirely accurate And I guess what I said in the in the second or third question – we quite like a scorecard like we saw the other night where the partnerships are 60 -30 -40. Like I said, no one went big two guys got 50 and we still managed to get 250 and a lot of our talk has been not about personal milestones. So as long as collectively we’re getting up to a score where we can keep going hard, we actually feel those sort of mid-range partnerships are pretty good. Ideally, you want someone to go on and get an 80 and a 90, but as long as a group, we’re striking at close to that 200 mark, depending on the surface, We’re not overly fussed by numbers in isolation. We care about the big number at the end.
